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New American Republic
“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent which will reach to himself” OVERVIEW Territory: 1,000ly by 5,000ly peninsula lying along the border between the Kess’Rith Empire and the Mochov District, between 60,000 and 65,000 LY from earth. Worlds: 10,872 worlds Populace: ~2.8 Billion per world, 78% Human/Naram, 18% Kess’Rith, 4% Other Army: 40,000 Legions Navy: 2,000 Battlegroups The New American Republic consists of roughly 10,000 worlds scattered across 8,000 star systems located along the rimward border between the Kess’Rith Empire and the Mochov District. It covers a dense area of mainly older stars some 5,000 light years long and 1,000ly wide. Administratively, it is divided into 103 States, with each state being made of between two and ten provinces containing as few as one and as many as four dozen worlds. The Republic population is majority human/naram, with a large Kess’Rith minority and a smattering of other species. THE GOVERNMENT The governance of the Republic tends to sit lightly on its people, based on a combination of ancient American and Greek ideals of republic. Individual worlds have the right to choose and organize their leadership in any fashion they wish, from the local up to the planetary level. Most planets are governed by some form of representative democracy, but oligarchies, plutocracies, monarchies, and Kess’Rith inherited Clan-based arrangements are all present. Each world ‘files’ its defining governing documents and laws (usually one or more constitutions) with the Republic. So long as the constitutions include absolute prohibitions against slavery in any form, freedom of passage, and the absolute equality before the law of all sentient beings, the Republic will likely accept whatever character the planetary constitution shows. These constitutions are, by Republic law, subject to change by a 2/3 supermajority of the planetary population, and any citizen may bring suit against their government for any violations of that constitution. The worlds in a given area are organized into provinces and then into states. Each State, like the worlds it rules, sets its own form of governance within the limits set by the Republic at large. In the most typical version, the various worlds in a State send one or more representatives to a State Congress, along with an executive elected by direct vote of the worlds within the State. As with World governments, however, State governments do vary radically. The populace of a State retains the same power to amend the State Constitution by general plebiscite as does the populace of a planet, and a given planet within a state may under certain circumstances leave the state, either to join another nearby or to try to form its own state. The provinces hold little power and importance in the modern Republic, having faded into the background as the State governments consume more and more of what was once the provinces responsibilities. The Republican Legislature is a Senate where each State has voting power based on a complex formula based on population, economic potential, and military contribution. Executive power is held by a president elected once every six years by the at-large population of the Republic. The current president, the wildly popular Kess’Rith Nan’Daquam, is unique in being the first non-human elected to the presidency. Her popularity as a retired, highly successful Fleet Admiral has served to empower a resurgent ‘War Party’ that feels the Republic should provide more support to the Commonwealth in its conflict with the Terran Overlord Government, despite a large contingent of the human population that holds its racial memory of enslavement by the Kess’Rith more closely than its concerns about the slavery and oppression of the TOG. Oddly, the animosity directed towards the Kess’Rith Empire for its past actions does not extend to the large Kess’Rith population of the Republic. This is likely because many Kess’Rith heroes have been duly lauded for their efforts and sacrifices on behalf of the Republic against foreign foes, most notably the Kess’Rith Empire itself. THE POPULACE The people of the Republic are, on average, free-wheeling, extroverted, and optimistic. When Alexander Trajan’s rebellion started, the worlds that became the republic were too far from the core worlds of Humanity to receive much direct support from Trajan. The rebellion was supported initially by Vauvasaur trade and armaments, and the Vauvasaur are still highly regarded in the Republic. This national memory is so strong that Vauvasaur guests in the republic will express surprise and some amusement at their inability to pay for their own drinks and the willingness of almost every member of the Republic to tolerate the unending Vauvasaur curiosity with consistent good humor. Weapons alone do not win wars, and the Vauvasaur, while not martially incompetent, are not a race of warriors. The Kess’Rith are such a race. Some Kess’Rith clans supported the rebellion in secret for their own ends, even in the earliest days, and on other worlds the human population had effectively become parts of the Kess’Rith clan structure, leading their clans to support the rebellion. Others, despite the brutal conflict of the rebellion came to find their loyalty lay to their world and those who had fought for it, rather than to a distant Kess’Rith Empire. Human and Kess’Rith brutality against the Kess’Rith themselves during the rebellion ensured that the Kess’Rith are a minority in the modern Republic. Those who remain play a role that is outsized for their population, and most of the resentment for the past enslavement of humanity is projected outward against the Empire, rather than held against the remaining Kess’Rith population of the Republic. Kess’Rith of the Republic are more likely to be drawn to military roles than in the Empire, though their confrontational character has been somewhat moderated by the heavy human and naram influence. A thousand years under Kess’Rith dominance stamped out most genetic and social distinctions between the naram and human population, and the modern ‘human’ populace is an almost indistinguishable mix of the two, speaking a common tongue that mixes Naram, English, and Latin. The shared history of a successful revolt, freedoms and liberties that are, they feel, unique in the civilized galaxy, and the relative wealth of the Republican populace driven by their position as a trading hub between three large powers have all fed into common-feeling and lack of distinction between the two peoples. Naram extended family structures, Human independence and self-focus, and Kess’Rith clan allegiance and militarism have resulted in a population that seems to outsiders almost schizophrenic. They are on average fiercely proud of their independence while at the same time deeply invested in family, extended family, and government loyalties. They display a focus on the arts and science and progress is coupled sometimes uncomfortably with a brutal martial spirit and energy. They are a study in contrasts, in love with their own exceptionalism, and quietly confident that they are the ‘shining city on the hill’ that should be the model for the rest of the galaxy. To their minds, the Kess’Rith Empire is cruel and overly militaristic, the TOG little better, and less honest about it, and the Commonwealth, whilst laudable, is weighed down by disunity, self-seeking, and corruption. One Commonwealth travel journalist summed them up as ‘Loud, childish, enthusiastic, drunk on their own self-importance, but friendly and charming for all of that.’ THE MILITARY The Republican Military is a mix of the traditions of the Kess’Rith and the models adopted by the Commonwealth. As such, they tend to focusing on firepower and resilience over mobility. Despite this, there is a thread of the Naram inheritance in their armed services, and a focus on more agile forces is starting to have some effect in the modern era. The main fighting strength of the Republican Army consists of 40,000 Corps sized forces, roughly equivalent in size to a TOG Strike Legion. Each Corps is fully grav-mechanized, using ‘heavy’ classed vehicles for every role from static defense to assault to cavalry. The primary role of these forces is to find and fix enemy forces for destruction by artillery, air, or orbital support, in an attempt to minimize troop losses and maximize offensive power for a given volume of spacelift capability – as naval transports are far more expensive than the units they carry, best to get the absolute maximum combat value out of a given transport. Training and proficiency in the Republican Army is consistently of the highest quality, and peacetime is filled with regular live-fire and simulated exercises that can be continental in scope. The heavy expenditures in the training budget do limit funds for acquisitions, so the Army’s equipment, whilst capable, tends to be somewhat older and often does not incorporate the newest breakthroughs. The Republic Navy fields 2,000 ‘Battlegroups’. Each Battlegroup is organized into separate squadrons (usually four), and is roughly equivalent to a TOG Battleship Group in cost, role, and deployment, whilst consisting of roughly twice as many hulls. In general, Republican Navy ships are far smaller and cheaper than their compatriots in the TOG or Commonwealth Navy, forcing the Navy to use multiple ships to accomplish the same objectives. In addition to the Army’s Corps and the Navy’s Battlegroups, each world and state in the Republic is responsible for its local defense as it sees fit. As a result, local forces vary wildly in quality of equipment, though the overall martial bent of the Republican populace ensures that the planetary militia tend to be relatively well trained, numerous, and high in morale, even if equipped with nothing better than track-laying vehicles and chemically powered weapons for ground forces and a mix of FTL Patrol Corvettes and Escorts for space. THE REPUBLICAN NAVY The Republican Navy is defined by the budgetary and technological constraints facing the nation. The Republic has many naval commitments – commerce protection, defense of far-flung trading posts, and the need for sufficient force to present a strong front against the overwhelming might of the nearby Kess’Rith and TOG fleets. To meet these commitments, the Republic must accept certain constraints that do not impact their larger neighbors. The mostly older worlds and systems that make up the majority of the Republic have limited mineral wealth. This makes production of FTL drives expensive. Many of the same rare earth elements necessary for a T-Space Drive are also required for production of sublight engines and the massive, gravitically-actuated spinal crowbars, and only a few facilities can even handle production of the massive 50,000+ rated engines used on many modern capital ships. To meet these challenges, naval designers have classically turned to smaller, more affordable vessels, to maximize resilience and combat power for a given outlay in terms of required FTL and drive mass. Lacking the strategic resources to easily build the massive spinal mounts found on most other navy’s ships, the designers have focused on large broadside laser bays, leading to ‘line of battle’ style tactics being a near absolute rule. Far flung duty stations and a need to economize have also driven the design of crew stations on the vessel. A part of the mass scavenged by avoiding profligately powerful main engines is set aside for increased crew comfort and recreational facilities, as well as massive space set aside for fuel bunkerage and other consumables. This helps the navy keep vessels on station for many months at a time, without requiring a constant resupply train that would itself require warships to protect. Whereas most major powers ships have a month or less of supplies on board, vessels of the Republican Navy have at least six months, and in some cases more than a year, of food, fuel, ammunition, and replacement parts on board every time they leave port. Finally, to help the smaller ships of the navy ‘punch up’ against larger enemy vessels, most ships (barring a few gun-focused cruisers that lack the space) carry as many fighters as possible, as well as a hefty squadron of FTL-Capable ‘Patrol Escorts’ in massive boat bays. Naval fighters are almost always very heavy multirole craft, designed to provide as much firepower as possible in support of their parent craft. The navy is organized into 2,000 battlegroups consisting of a varying number of squadrons, with different squadrons being optimized for different sorts of duties. A notional Battlegroup is set out below, though the reader is cautioned that this formation, whilst in some ways mathematically ‘average’, is in no way typical – the typical battlegroup would, among other things, likely be focused heavily into one or two roles, rather than having all four basic squadron types. Procurement costs are included for comparison purposes. Battle Group (Batgru) 57-10, “The Exemplars” Battle Squadron: 2xBB, 2xCA, 4xFF, 8xDD. 65.8B Talents Aviation Squadron: 1xCVA, 1xBC, 2x CE, 4xFF, 8xDD, 81.1B Talents Strike Squadron: 1xBBF, 2xBC, 2xCF, 4xFF, 85.6B Talents Raiding Squadron: 1xBC, 2xCF, 4xFF, 8xDD, 52.7B Talents TOG 1795th Battleship Squadron “The Conquerors” 1x BB Shiva, 1x CA Tyrannus, 2x FF Octil, 4x DD Serpens. 66 Billion Talents. Category:A to Z Index Category:Original Articles Category:Marcussmythe Articles